T.J. Dillashaw: Renan Barao just making a 'bunch of excuses'
Since winning the UFC bantamweight title back in May, T.J. Dillashaw has heard everything under the sun about why he was able to topple Renan Barao when 30-plus other fighters over the last 9 years could not.
He's heard he was lucky. He's heard Barao overlooked him. He's heard that it was just his night. He's heard that he found the game plan to beat the Brazilian. The list goes on and on and Dillashaw expects that kind of reaction when a monstrous underdog beats the incumbent champion.
Dillashaw has also seen the comments Barao has had since their first fight about his lack of motivation going into UFC 173 as well as looking past the former Ultimate Fighter finalist before the bout ever began.
"It's definitely an excuse, but he probably underestimated me I imagine. No one gave me the time of day to win the fight and I'm sure he was looking into that as well, but a lot of stuff he's been saying has been a bunch of excuses, but you've got to create some excuse about why he lost," Dillashaw told FOX Sports on Thursday. "He's been undefeated for 10 years, there's got to be something supposedly that went wrong."
Barao will return to the Octagon just three months after he lost in a lopsided fight to Dillashaw. Their first bout didn't end in controversy or with a one-punch knockout. It was a systematic dismantling over 20-plus minutes that ended with Dillashaw putting Barao away in the fifth round.
The limited time between fights seems to favor Dillashaw considering he took little to no damage in the fight and his confidence has to be soaring after beating Barao so decisively. As for the former champion, Dillashaw isn't sure taking this fight so soon was such a good idea.
"I'm sure he'll change his game plan, but it's like how much can you change in so long? You can't get faster in two or three months, let alone recover from the punches that landed on him," Dillashaw stated.
"I do not think it's enough time, but he's a champion of course he wants a rematch. He's hungry now that he got beat and I would do the same thing. I remember when I lost in The Ultimate Fighter finale, I told the UFC I wanted to fight as soon as possible. That's just who we are, we're competitors."
As far as Dillashaw goes, he's not going to try to re-invent the wheel after destroying Barao for nearly five rounds the first time, but he won't exactly pull off the same strategy again either. Dillashaw knows he put together the best possible game plan the last time -- now he's just got to tweak that enough to keep Barao on his toes until he can finish the fight again.
"I've got to continue with what got me here and add a few things," Dillashaw. "I've got to surprise him, that's the whole point of MMA is to keep your opponent guessing so I've got a few tricks that I'm going to be adding and keep him guessing."
